The best Raptors memes from 2021-22 season

From curse words, to getting caught on camera and player coaching, the Toronto Raptors have a hilarious group. Here are the best memes from this past season. Listen to the full 'Raptors Awards' episode on the 'Raptors Over Everything' podcast feed or watch on our Yahoo Sports Canada YouTube.

Video Transcript

AMIT MANN: Switching to meme of the year and, I guess, actually sticking with Chris Boucher-- go ahead.

AARON ROSE: Well, yeah. To me, that moment where you just see Chris Boucher keel over on the bench, dying of exhaustion-- to me, that represents this Raptors season. We talked about the lack of depth on this team and Chris being one of those few players who could actually provide depth. And Nick was, fairly or unfairly-- and I think we see what happened with Fred VanVleet in the second half of the season. He probably ran these guys into the ground. But that encapsulated-- that moment encapsulated this Raptors season because these guys were exhausted. They led the league in starter's minutes. He ran these guys into the ground. There are pros and cons. They probably wouldn't have been the fifth seed in the East had Nick not pushed the starters so hard. But you see Chris Boucher right there. He's just dying. And to me, that was the meme of the season.

AMIT MANN: And he hated that. He hated that it went viral like that because he was saying, yo, I was tired. That's all that happened. But, I mean, cameras are everywhere, bro. So it's going to happen. It is what it is. There's a few memes that we're going to talk about. So one that came to mind for me is Gary Trent Jr.-- when he was laying on the ground, and he says to the camera, get the camera out of my face, when he actually turned. And I think, actually, SportsNet-- they used it in some of their promos because it was such a perfect moment. He's laying there on his back. It seems like he's daydreaming. And then he just flipped the camera. That was really funny. Another one that comes to mind-- coach VanVleet-- we're going to get to him in a couple of minutes here. But he had so many moments when he was not playing-- unfortunately, there were lots of them-- where he's doing thumbs up. He's got these hilarious faces. He's praying on the court-- those kind of things. coach VanVleet-- he was a gem off the court at least for content.

AARON ROSE: For me, the other ones that came to mind were Fred VanVleet doing the Sam Cassell big balls--

AMIT MANN: Oh, yes. Yes, yes yes yes.

--celebration when he hit that big shot against the 76ers. And then, ironically, the next day he showed up on the injury report with a groin strain. So that, to me, was one of the funniest stories of the season. And then you have that Gary Trent Jr. moment where he's in the media, we're doing Zoom, and he's just frozen. He's not moving. And somebody's like, is Gary frozen? And JQ, the head of Raptors PR, is just like, no, he's just being Gary.

[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

- I think you're frozen there, Jen.

- No, Gary is just not moving.

- OK.

AARON ROSE: So Gary is very stoic. You know, he has that style. And he was just sitting there with his glasses on, looking at the camera, and not moving. So those were some of the funny moments that came to mind. And of course, you have Pascal Siakam explaining his first big game of the season when he came back from that injury. All of a sudden, he's getting peed on by his niece, and he explained that whole story to us. I'm not sure if that qualifies as a meme. But just funny moments from the season-- him telling us that his good luck charm was his niece peeing on him before the game or whatever it was before, I think, he went out and had 31 points against the Wizards.

AMIT MANN: Exactly.

AARON ROSE: Those are the funny moments-- a very entertaining season for this Raptors group this year.

AMIT MANN: Yeah-- great personalities. Another Pascal Siakam one was his face when he can't believe a foul was called on him. It's the most shocking face you'll ever see. It's like the face where a friend of yours says something that is so ridiculous, and you are going out of your way to just be completely dumbfounded by what this man has just said. He has a lot of those. OG Anunoby saying the word fuck for no reason, actually-- he just hit a shot, and he just said it. And I happened to capture it, and I'm really happy that I did.

And Scottie Barnes' knee-highs when Pascal Siakam hit that game-winner against the Boston Celtics-- a depleted Boston Celtics team. Yeah, that game should not have been as competitive as it was, but what I loved about that moment is that Scottie was doing the knee-highs before the shot even went in. He just knew that Pascal got to his spot, and he hit it. And one that comes to mind again is Scottie waving when he's on the podium for the All-Star weekend. For some reason, he was just doing this really silly wave, and that's very much a Scottie move. He's an innocent character. He loves hugging-- wants to hug everyone. I've never been hugged by Scottie Barnes, but I wouldn't mind. He seems wholesome.

AARON ROSE: And he had that hugging moment with Tyrese Maxey at the All-Star Game, which, I think, is another iconic hugs moment for Scottie Barnes.

AMIT MANN: I'm going to hug you. No, you're not. I'm going to hug you. No, you're not. And then what's funny, actually-- remember, in the playoffs, there was a moment where Tyrese Maxey got a really hard screen from Scottie in game 1. And Tyrese was looking up at him. He's like, yo, I thought we were boys.

AARON ROSE: Exactly.

AMIT MANN: What happened? Not in the playoffs, unfortunately.